


Fall For You

by asiacore



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, High School, M/M, Parody
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-03
Updated: 2013-01-03
Packaged: 2017-11-23 12:10:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 19,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/621988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asiacore/pseuds/asiacore
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liam Payne and Zayn Malik—two teens who are worlds apart—meet at a karaoke party and discover their mutual love for music. They eventually (accidentally) audition for their school musical. That pisses off the overly dramatic Louis Tomlinson and his best friend/sidekick, Harry Styles. Then, Niall Horan, Liam’s best friend and team mate tries to restore the social order of the school, but love prevails and blah blah all that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> sorry about that misleading summary but to be completely clear this is a high school musical parody and also sorry about the length of this fic, but to make up for it [here](http://shipslostatsea.tumblr.com/post/27110151650/alright-heres-my-half-assed-playlist-for-the-ziam) is a albeit short, playlist
> 
> also found [here](http://shipslostatsea.tumblr.com/hsmparody)

When Zayn’s cousin asked him if he wanted to go to a New Year’s Eve party he quickly agreed, not eager to turn down free booze and tons of willing people under the influence to make out with and never see again.

But when he arrived that’s not what he got, at all.

It was at a ski lodge, “Oh, so posh!” Zayn had teased when he was first told about late one night over the phone.

He couldn’t help but feel supremely underdressed wearing a plain white shirt under his old leather jacket and a pair of jeans. People were smiling sweetly at him as he walked up the lodge steps towards the huge old oak doors where he was told to meet his cousin.

“Zayn!” his cousin waved him over. “I’m so sorry about this man,” he clapped a hand on his shoulder and whispered into his ear, “I thought this was going to be less, uh, lame.”

Zayn lifted an eyebrow in confusion, but suddenly understood why his cousin was apologizing to him when he walked in the ‘teen room’. He took in his surroundings, kids in party hats sipping on fizzy drinks and Zayn had half a mind to leave.

“This way,” his cousin handed him a drink and pulled him to a far corner.

“What is this?” Zayn asked.

“Coke” he smirked before looking around to see if they were being watched. When the coast was clear he pulled out a small flask and poured its contents into their cups. “Now, it’s Rum and Coke.”

“Do you carry that thing around everywhere?” Zayn asked but nodded his head in thanks anyway.

“Does it matter?”

He figured it didn’t and shrugged, knocking back the drink in the process. “I’m gonna have a smoke.” Zayn pushed his way through crowds of sober teenagers and cheesy streamers out onto the deck, glad to have finally escaped that stuffy room and that bad rendition of Don’t Stop Believin’ that someone was singing on the karaoke machine set up in the middle of the room.

-

“Come on kid, keep up!”

Liam was running laps with his father in the basketball court of the swanky ski lodge they were staying in for winter holidays.

“This is hardly fair,” he huffed, “you’ve been cheating this entire time.”

“No, you’re just being lazy.”

“Dad, I thought this was supposed to be _fun_?”

“You don’t find this fun?”

He stopped dead in his tracks. “Is that a serious question?”

“What are you two still doing in here?” Liam’s mother popped her head in the gym doors.

“Just practicing, love!” his father called out. “Gotta stay limber even in the winter!”

His mother laughed, but quickly put an end to their session when she saw the exasperated look on her sons face. “Well it’s almost midnight, you two clean up and Liam you can head on up to the kids room.”

“ _Kids_ room, mum?” Liam sighed but headed out the door anyway.

“Teens room, young adult’s room, whichever you prefer.” She pinched his cheek lovingly. “Have fun!” she yelled after her son but he was already gone.

-

Once he finished his cigarette Zayn decided he’d rather head back into the room now that was considerably quieter and he was much less annoyed. Plus it was either head indoors or freeze to death and as bad as this party was he’d much rather live to tell about it.

He quickly realized that was a terrible idea though because as soon he stepped in the sliding glass door he was being pulled on to the make shift stage in front of the karaoke machine and, _shit_ why didn’t he leave a long time ago?

“I don’t sing,” he tried to say but it was too late, there was already another guy standing next to him looking like he was as excited about this as Zayn was, maybe a bit more anxious actually.

-

Liam was making small talk with a pretty blonde girl when he found himself being yanked away and pulled backwards up onto a platform. “Hey! What—”

“Someday you guys might thank me for this,” a guy said thrusting a microphone into his hand, “or not.”

He looked around the room despairingly, _is this really happening?_

The boy next to him was stiff as board, avoiding all contact and Liam just shrugged and placed his mic on the stand when the music started. He smiled to himself despite his nervousness; at least it was a song he knew.

“I got chilllllls, they’re multiplyin’, and I’m loosiiiing controool. ‘Cause the power you’re supplyin’, it’s electrifyin’!”

Liam was already into the song bopping along, but he was afraid the boy next to him wasn’t going to sing by the pained look on his face. He was well aware he probably looked like an idiot, but he knew he didn’t sound _that_ terrible.

He was ready to just sing both parts when Zayn shrugged and joined in, “You better shape up, ‘cause I need a man and my heart is set on you.” He smirked over at Liam. “You better shape up. You better understand, to my heart I must be true.”

His smirk turned into a full fledged grin when Liam turned towards him and they sang together, “Nothing left, nothing’ left for me to do.”

The crowd was clapping and cheering and Liam shrugged off his jacket and positioned his mic stand to face his karaoke partner. “You’re the one that I want! You are the one I want, o,o, oo, honey!” they sang in unison, “The one I neeeeeeed. Oh, yes indeeeed.”

The boy didn’t dance (not like Liam who was twirling and flailing about like a drunk chick at a bar) but he did nod along and when the song was over he invited Liam outside with him so they could chat.

“You don’t mind, do you?” he asked, already lighting his cigarette and ignored Liam’s nose wrinkling in protest. “I’m Zayn,” he exhaled after his first drag.

“Liam,” he went to stick out his hand but thought otherwise when he saw the hand that wasn’t fiddling around with his cigarette was shoved deep within his pockets. “You were amazing up there.” He blurted out for lack of nothing better to say.

“I’m alright I guess,” Zayn shrugged, “a little miffed I had to be Sandy though.”

It was Liam’s turn to shrug, “Sorry about that,”

“Don’t really mind,” he took a drag, “I don’t usually do things like that.”

“Like what?”

“Sing… In public” Zayn smirked, “a bit of liquid courage helped though.”

Liam’s eyes widened in realization and Zayn couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out of his throat.

“Well what about you mate? You sounded like you were made to be up there.”

“I don’t—well um, I mean I sing sometimes, like…in the shower, or whatever.” Liam stumbled over his words, not sure why he was so flustered.

He was just about to say something else, something that wouldn’t make him seem so _lame_ (because this kid was so cool with his pierced ears and his leather jacket and his cigarettes and Liam couldn’t see any but he was just sure Zayn had tattoos) but then the music shut off and everyone around them started shouting.

“Forgot it was New Years,” Zayn mumbled but it swallowed up by everyone around them.

_10_

_9_

_8_

_7_

_6_

_5_

_4_

_3_

_2_

_1_

_“HAPPY NEW YEAR!”_

There were fireworks going off and people singing and screaming and Liam could feel Zayn’s gaze hard on his face.

“’Spose you wanna kiss now,” Zayn’s staring at his lips and he’s at a loss for words.

“W-what?” Liam was stunned and suddenly he needed to get as far away as possible from this boy. “I should uh—I should probably get back in there and go tell my parents Happy New Year.” He turned to leave but Zayn grabbed his arm.

“Wait,” he spun Liam around, “give me your phone.”

Liam was confused but complied anyway and accepted Zayn’s phone when it was pressed into his palm. He typed out his number and went to hand is back when he saw Zayn taking a picture of himself and decided to do the same.

“Here,” he handed Zayn his phone back and examined his new contact, “just so you know, uh, singing with you has been the most fun I’ve had on this entire vacation.”

Zayn is smiling up at him, he notices he’s a bit taller than him and dips his head down so they’re closer to each other now.

He nods but otherwise doesn’t acknowledge what Liam has just said, he simply nods and turns to head inside, “Call me, Liam.”

There’s a churning in Liam’s stomach and he tries to compose himself. He’s sure he looks like an idiot, staring forlornly at this boy he just met, not wanting him to go away ever and _where does he even live?_

_-_

It was a week after their encounter and Liam had just arrived at school after winter holidays and he was excited to see his friends, he really was, but he couldn’t help but think about the boy that never called.

He pulled up in his mums old blue Volkswagen Beetle and parked in his usual spot near the school gym and headed to the grassy area where he could see his friends already met up, probably chatting about what they did over holiday.

“LIAM!” his best mate Niall exclaimed and ran over to meet him halfway. “I missed you man,” he threw his arms around him in a tight squeeze.

“Hey Niall,” he attempted to hug him back, “I missed you too, all of you.” He addressed their entire group who was crowded around them now. “By the way, Happy New Year!”

“Hell yeah it’s gonna be a Happy New Year!” Niall all but screams and Liam almost trips over him. “It’s spring term, and you know what that means?” Niall is actually screaming and Liam just nods, “That means track and field is back in season and our star cross country runner is going to bring us out on top once again!”

“Right,” Liam rolls his eyes. Sure okay he’s their fastest runner, but Niall doesn’t give himself enough credit. Niall’s their highest pole vaulter, broke the record in their entire county back in year seven.

“We will be victorious!” Niall’s howling and so is everyone else (their mascot is a wolf, and Liam’s always found the howling to be a bit obnoxious but he loves to humor Niall so he’ll usually join in) but then the bell rings and they all file into the school halls still reeling over their winter holidays.

-

Zayn hates moving, especially during the school year. He’s already not the best in class, or in sports, or in socializing or in life in general. So moving just makes things that much harder, but when his parents split he didn’t really have much of a choice.

It was either move with his father or, nothing, he had to move with his father. He supposes he’ll miss his sisters, but it’s his mum he’ll miss the most. He knew their marriage had been on the rocks for a while now and that they tried staying together for the sake of the kids, but no one wants to stay in a loveless relationship.

So here is at some nameless school in some unknown city at the beginning of spring term being led to his first class for the day. He hadn’t had any preferences on what his electives were considering he hated all things school related, so he wasn’t surprised to see that his first class for the day was drama when he was handed his schedule and shoved into a classroom full of kids who already knew each other.

He moved to the throne that their teacher was on and handed her his schedule and swiftly made a beeline to the desk furthest away from their rather boisterous looking teacher.

-

Liam was listening to his mate Andy talk about his holiday shenanigans while he tried to spin a basketball on his right index finger, and nearly dropped it when he saw a flash of dark hair and leather push past his classmates to a desk in the back of the room.

“Alright class settle down!” their drama teacher Ms. Perry stands up from her seat, which is actually a throne from one of the schools Elizabethan-themed plays last year.

He turns to sit but is intercepted by bright blue eyes, tanned skin, and a wide smile, “Hi Liam!” Louis squeaks and plops down next to him shooting Niall a glare.

Niall just rolls his eyes and taps Liam on the shoulder, “You alright?” he asks and Liam nods, not realizing his face had literally fell because it can’t be, that’s not _him_.

Liam pulls his phone from his pocket and searches his contacts until he finds the numbers he’s looking for and presses _TALK_.

A phone rings from somewhere near the back of the room and everyone scrambles to check if its theirs.

“You all know how I feel about cell phones!” Ms. Perry starts heading around the room, “Louis, Harry, I see you two have already begun.” She pulls a bucket from a cabinet behind her and thrusts it forward. “Cell phones please, and I’ll see you in detention. She heads to the back of the room, “you, I have no clue who you are but we’ll get to know each other better in detention today after school, yes?”

The boy looks up and shit that’s him it’s really him its Zayn.

“Mr. Payne!”

Liam tries to jam his phone back into his pocket but isn’t quick enough, “I’ll be seeing you in detention today as well.” She snatches the phone out of his grip and plops it into the can with the rest.

“Oh no, sorry Ms. P, but Liam can’t make it to detention today. We have track practice today after school and—”

“Well you can join him in detention as well Mr. Horan!” Ms. Perry slams the bucket down on Liam’s desk, “The holidays are over children! Way over! It’s time to get back into school mode!” she shouts and the bell rings almost immediately afterward.

Everyone jumps up and heads for the door before they all get handed a detention as well. Liam was the first out and stands by the door to wait for Zayn, if that was really him and when everyone files out he nearly loses it.

“Zayn!” he practically shouts and topples his way over to where the boy was heading down the corridor.

He turns around and smiles, “Liam, wow, hi.”

“When did you—?”

“Just moved here with my dad,” he shrugged, “sorry I never called, a lot of shit has been going on lately.”

“No it’s cool, really,” Liam nods and he’s just genuinely excited to see the boy. “It’s really good to see you.”

“Why are you whispering?” Zayn quirks an eyebrow at him and, what? He didn’t even realize he was whispering.

“Oh, well my mates know about the snowboarding, but I haven’t really gotten around telling them about the singing yet.” Liam shrugs.

“Too much for them to handle?” he’s staring at Liam with an amused look on his face and Liam almost wants to take offense.

“It’s not that, it’s just that… well that’s not what I do.” Liam tries to explain, but Zayn’s already walking away from him, once again. He struggles to keep up with Zayn which is almost ironic considering he’s the fastest kid in the county, “So uh yeah, anyway welcome to St Peters Collegiate School,” he gestures and Zayn just shoots him a half smile as they continue their trek.

“And now that you’ve met Ms. Perry I’m sure you can’t wait to sign up for that.” He points at the flashy poster before them that read, **“Audition for the School Musical”** in big glittery letters at the top.

Zayn shook his head, “I won’t be singing up for anything ever, I’m just here because I have to be,” he sighed, “but if you try out, I’ll be sure to come see you perform.”

“No, no, no. That’s completely impossible, I can’t do that.” Liam’s eyes almost fall out of his head from opening so wide and they both laugh.

“What’s impossible Li?” Louis appears in front of them and Liam can’t help but feel like he’s being stalked. “I wouldn’t think impossible is even in your vocabulary.” He gives Zayn the big once over and scowls, “So nice of you to show our new classmate around.”

Louis spins on his heel and signs his name in big bold letters on the audition sign-up sheet. “Oh were you going to sign up too?” he asks smugly. “My best mate Harry and I star in all the schools’ productions, and we really welcome newcomers. There are a lot of supporting roles in a show, I’m sure we can find something for you.”

“No thanks,” Zayn returns the forced smile. “I was just looking at all of the beautiful bulletin boards.” Sarcasm drips from every word uttered. “There’s a lot of shit going on at this school,” he comments and adds before walking away, “nice penmanship.”

Louis scowls at Zayn’s retreating figure and Liam takes that as his cue to leave but is stopped once again, “So Liam,” he continues when he turns back around to face him, “I missed you over winter holidays. What did you do?”

Liam nods and tries to be casual with the boy, “Well you know um, I uh played basketball and ran some, uh I went snowboarding and played more basketball…and ran some more. You know, the usual.”

Louis nodded and stepped forward, “You are so dedicated,” he placed a hand on Liam’s chest; “just like me!” he reeled it back and flicked his hair out of his face. “When’s the big inaugural track meet?”

“Two weeks from today.”

“You know you ought to come watch me in the musical!” Louis shouts and Liam just nods, anything to make him happy.

He turns to leave when Louis calls out, “Toodles!”

“Uh, toodles” he waved back and walks off to find out where Zayn had wandered off to.

-

It was gym and they were out on the field stretching before moving out onto the track.

“So is it true you get extra credit for auditioning for that school musical thing?” Liam tries to bring up the subject casually but regrets it when Niall tenses next to him.

“Who cares?” he lifts his head in confusion.

“Well I was just wondering, it might be good you know for uh…college—”

“No” Niall cuts him off.

“I mean maybe—”

“Liam, no.” He repeats and gets more serious this time. “The music in those shows isn’t like cool or anything it’s like opera or like _show music_.” Niall visibly shudders at the thought. “It’s all costumes and make up and… Just don’t think about it okay.”

“Yeah mate, I know it’s just I thought it might be a good laugh. And Louis is kinda fun to be around, I guess.” Liam shrugs.

“And so is a prostitute, but you don’t bring her home to mum.” Niall laughs and races off down the track.

“That didn’t make any sense,” Liam mumbles and shuffles around in his bag looking for his iPod. When he finds in he sticks the ear buds in and puts in on shuffle before following after Niall.

Somewhere between lapping Niall almost three times in a row and the bell ringing, Liam had found himself singing along quite loudly to Lovestoned by Justin Timberlake. He had even modified the lyrics to fit his gender of choice without actually realizing what he was doing (and if everyone else around him noticed, they pretended that they didn’t, except for Niall who was always pretty bad at subtlety).

He was only pulled out of his thoughts when he heard the incessant howling that Niall had gotten the entire team to join in on when Liam got lost in his music. They were cheering him on from the sidelines and he smiled weakly at them before finishing up his last lap and heading to the locker room hoping that a hot shower would help clear his clouded mind.

-

“So it seemed like you knew Liam Payne.” Louis plopped down at the open easel next to Zayn.

They were in art and Zayn didn’t particularly want to be bothered by the gaudy boy with the nasally voice and stripes and bright pants and suspenders, but decided he’d rather not see what happens if he chose to ignore him instead.

“Nah, not really.” Zayn shook his head and turned his attention back to the front of the room where their teacher was listing off named of famous artists they’ll be studying this term. He hoped Louis would take that as a sufficient answer and leave, but he wasn’t so lucky. “He was just showing me around.”

“Oh?” Louis quirks a perfectly arched eyebrow at him. “Liam doesn’t usually just show random new kids around school.”

“Interesting.” He says bored.

“Yeah you know, it’s pretty much track for him 24/7, all he cares about is running.” Louis offers.

“Right. That should be Henri with an i not a y.” Zayn mumbles to himself.

“Excuse me?” their teacher Miss something or another, Zayn doesn’t remember, all he knows is that she must be 17 months pregnant because she’s _huge_.

“You spelled Henri Rousseau wrong. Its H-E-N-R-I-not H-E-N-R-Y.” he shrugged.

“Well I’m sure you’re wrong,” their teacher shakes he head but moves to her art book and flips around to check anyway.

Zayn rolls his eyes because he may be an idiot when it comes to everything else, but he knows his art. Sure he’s more of a pop art fan, and he likes tagging and weird colors and even weirder designs, but he _knows_ that Miss 17 months pregnant is wrong.

“I stand corrected,” she smirks and moves to fix her mistake on the chalkboard.

Louis makes a sort of choked noise next to him and Zayn turns to look at him but he’s flouncing away in a huff.

-

Harry was listening to some year nine drone on about her “ah-mazing vacay in Italy” when he saw Liam Payne slinking around the halls anxiously.

The athletic boy had made his way over to the sign-up sheet for the spring musical, occasionally throwing a nervous glance over his shoulder before he stopped in front of it and just stared. That didn’t last long though because his shoulders tenses and he stamped off in a damn near sprint down the hall when he saw Louis headed toward him.

“Louis!” Harry stage whispered and pulled his arm over to where Liam was just standing. “Liam Payne was just looking at our audition list.”

“Again?” Louis asked incredulously. “You know he was hanging out with that new kid, and they were both looking at the list.”

Harry’s eyebrows shot up because he didn’t take the new kid as being a thespian, and Louis was never too accepting of competition.

“There’s something a bit off about him,” Louis’ eyes narrowed, “where did he say he was from again?”

Harry tried to think back but he had no clue, he doesn’t recall the new kid telling him where he’s from or speaking to him ever for that matter.

“Ugh!” Louis rolled his eyes and pulled Harry down the corridor into the computer lab. He typed in  Zayn Malik in Google and pressed search.

“How did you even get his last name?” Harry inquired.

“That’s unimportant,” Louis waved the question away, “Look” he pointed at the screen.

“Wow” Harry was surprised he actually found something on the boy, “he’s basically royalty.”

The pair studied the webpage before them eyes wide and mouths gaped open.

“Do you see what I’m seeing?  Zayn is the son of the famous Broadway actress Tricia Brannan. _The Tricia Brannan_.” Louis’ face flushed.

“And underneath it says he’s been in a bit of trouble with the law.” Harry points out.

Louis smiles wickedly, “Oh, he’s the brooding artist type. Likes to share his art with the unaccepting world.”

“So why do you think he’s interested in our musical?” Harry cocked an eyebrow.

“I’m not sure that he is,” Louis pursed his lips, “and we needn’t concern ourselves with _amateurs_.” He flipped his fringe out of his eyes, “But there’s no harm in making sure that Zayn is welcomed to the school in activities that are appropriate for him.”

Harry nods in approval, “I love the way you think.”

“Everyone does.” Louis types up a few more things, a devilish grin consuming his face before hitting PRINT and flouncing over to the printer.

-

“More gold!” Ms.Perry squawked loudly at her students during after school detention, “Paint! Don’t stop to look at me!” she stamped around the stage in a flurry.

Apparently after school detention with Ms. Perry meant being subjected to painting set designs for the big spring play in the smelly theater for an hour.

“So many new faces in detention today,” she stopped in front of Zayn. “I hope you don’t make a habit of it, but the drama club can always use an extra hand, and you seem to have quite a way with a paintbrush.”

“Uh no, I’m not here to join your little club or whatever.” Zayn snaps.

“But what better way is there to fit in to this new school than to join a club?” Louis clapped a hand on Zayn’s shoulder.

“Just think about it.” Ms. Perry winks and continues her rant, “While we’re all working let us talk about the mounting evils of cell phones.”

A collected groan was heard throughout the theater.

-

“Alright lads, let’s huddle up!” Liam’s dad, Coach Payne, or Mr. P to Niall, “As you lot know, we’ve only got two weeks ‘til the big track meet and—wait, where’s Liam and Niall?”

Suddenly the ground was more interesting than answering Coach Payne’s inevitable question. They all shrugged and murmured non-descript responses hoping he’d just carry on with practice without them.

No such luck though, “Don’t make me ask again,” the warning in his voice was more prominent now.

Still no answers.

“Where’s Liam and Niall?” Coach Payne yelled.

“Detention.” Andy mumbled and shied away from his coach’s glare when he turned to leave the field.

-

“Perhaps the most heinous example of cell phone abuse is ringing in the theater.” Mrs. Perry droned on to her detention students.

Niall was having a nap in the faux tree that he and Liam were supposed to be hanging paper leaves onto when Coach Payne stomped in, his loud voice waking him in an instant.

“Where’s my team, Perry?”

Liam jumped down from his perch above Niall in the tree and they stood beside his friend who looked as anxious as he felt.

“And what in the hell were those two doing a tree?”

“It’s called crime and punishment, Payne.” Her eyes narrowed in his general, “Besides, proximity to the arts is cleansing for the soul.”

“We need to talk. Now.” Coach Payne seemed less than impressed, “and you two,” he pointed to his son and his best mate, “on the field. _Now_.”

Liam and Niall scurried off the stage and out of the back doors, following their coach’s orders.

-

“The Westhale Knights have been our biggest competitors for three years in running, and now we are one game away from stealing the championship away from them once again!” Coach Payne lectured, “It’s time to make our stand. The team is you. You are the team.” He pointed to each by individually, “and this team does not exist unless each and every one of you are focused fully on our goal! Am I clear?”

Niall nods, practically vibrating where he stood. He smiles wide all teeth and braces and lets out an ear piercing howl and elicits a collective howl from the rest of the team. It goes on for longer than expected, Liam having gave up joining them somewhere near the beginning, until Coach Payne blows his whistle for them to disperse.

-

“I already said I didn’t want to join your little club.” Zayn told the niner sent by Ms. Perry to get home to join Drama Club. “I’d sooner eat a bag of shit and sharp glass, but hey tell her maybe if I haven’t offed myself by next year I’ll join.”

The girl nodded and went to leave until he grabbed her arm and spun her around, “Wait, what do you know about Liam Payne?”

She looked startled and glanced at the grip he had on her arm before mumbling, “L-Liam Payne?”

Zayn nodded and let his hold on her arm loosen up, “Yeah,”

“Well, um, I uh, I’m not an expert on him or anything, but uh—”

“Spit it out, yeah?”

“Oh my gosh! Liam Payne is just the hottie super bum!” the girl yells and everyone turns to stare at them.

Zayn drops her arm and turns to leave mumbling to himself, “That’s the last time I talk to a niner.”

-

Liam was on the treadmill out in the back room that he and his father turned into a gym when he heard a voice from the doorway behind him.

“I still don’t understand this whole detention thing.” His dad folded his arms and leaned against the doorframe.

“It was my fault,” Liam frowned, “sorry dad.”

“No, I don’t believe that,” he shook his head. “Perry hates me, and she’s probably taking it out on you now because you’re my son.”

“Right.” Liam stopped the treadmill and stepped off to face his father. “Hey dad, have you ever wanted to try something new, but didn’t because you were afraid of what other people would think of you?”

His dad shrugged, “What? Is this your way of telling me you’d rather play rugby because—”

“No dad, I mean what if you want you want to try something _really_ new and it’s a total disaster and all your friends laugh at you?”

The elder Payne thought long and hard before answering his on with a shrug, “Well then maybe they’re not really your friends.”

Liam took that to heart. Maybe his friends would accept him really being into singing and may—

“That’s what I was talking to the team about earlier. Teamwork, and especially you because you’re their leader.”

“No dad, that’s not what I was talking about.”

“You know there’s a lot riding on that championship game next week Troy. Do you know how much a scholarship is worth?”

Actually he doesn’t.

“Uh, a lot?”

“Right, now focus Liam.” His father turned to leave as he started back up on the treadmill.

-

The next day in homeroom, Zayn was waiting patiently in the back of the room for Liam to arrive. He tried to keep a low profile, but that kid Harry was standing by the door staring him down while his annoying friend Louis was playing kiss-ass to Ms. Perry.

He was about to say something when the bell rang and the students came shoving in the door in attempt to not be late.

“Well I’m assuming you’ve all learned your lessons about disruptions in homeroom after yesterday’s events.” Ms. Perry addresses the class.

But Zayn isn’t listening. And apparently neither is Liam, seeing how he’s turned completely around in his chair trying to have a silent conversation, but failing completely which just causes Zayn to laugh into the bend of his elbow in attempt to silence it.

“If not,” Ms. Perry stood directly in front of Liam, eyes flickering back and forth between him and Zayn, “there are plenty of dressing rooms that need painting.”

Liam straightened up in his seat and turned to face the front while Zayn rolled his eyes, and wondered when this woman was going to give it up. He didn’t want to be a part of her little club.

“Now for announcements!” she strides to her throne and has a seat. “This morning during free period will be your chance to audition for the spring musical. You can audition in singles and pairs, and I will be in theatre until noon for those of you who are bold enough to—”

“What kinda shit do you think this woman is smoking?” Niall mumbles more to himself than anything but Liam hears and can’t help but giggle.

-

When class is over Liam rushes to stow away his bag in his locker in an attempt to allow him to move swiftly during his free period.

“Hey mate,” Niall appears next to him almost silently, which is a rare occurrence considering everything he does is loud and borderline clumsy.

“Hey Niall, what’s up?” Liam closes his locker and walks in stride with the blonde.

“The whole team is about to meet up in the gym for free period, what do you think we should be working on during—”

“You know actually,” Liam cuts him off, “I won’t be there today sorry. I’ve uh, got a massive amount of homework to catch up on.”

“Homework? Really, mate?” Niall deadpans. “It’s only the second day back, and _I’m_ not even behind on homework, and you know I’ve been behind on homework since primary.”

Liam can’t help but laugh, because yeah that was a pretty rubbish excuse. “That’s hilarious, Niall _you’re_ hilarious. Alright, I’ll catch you late then, yeah?” he leaves a confused looking Niall behind him as he heads for the longest way possible to the theater.

He’s not an idiot. Liam knows Niall isn’t about to just take his lame answer and let him get away without missing a practice. So he does everything in his power to dodge his friend who he knows is following closely behind him.

Things were going smoothly until Liam hit the outside of the gym and, “Oh bollocks,” he mutters to himself and attempts to hide in the crevice of the adjacent building.

He narrowly misses his father and loses Niall somewhere between Debate club and Auto Shop and makes his way into the theater posing as a janitor. He sees Ms. Perry making a beeline straight toward the stage with Louis and Harry following closely, big grins on all three faces.

“This is where the true expression of the artist is realized.” Ms. Perry claps for attention. There’s a frail ginger kid behind her who looks like he’d rather be anywhere than on the stage and kids loitering in from different entrances all hoping to get their shot at the lead in the musical.

“This is where inner truth is revealed in an actor’s journey and—” Ms. Perry’s ling winded introduction was cut short by the sound of a shrill ring reverberating throughout the theater, “Was that a cell phone?”

“No ma’am that was the warning bell,” the ginger lad speaks up.

“Oh alright, thank you Edward.” She continues on her speech. “Those of you wishing to audition must realize that time is of the essence. We have many roles to cast and final callbacks will be posted next week. First you will sing a few bars and I will give you a few pointers and tips on whether or not the theater is your true calling.”

The ginger rolled his eyes and made his way over to the piano while Ms. Perry droned on. “Our composer Edward Sheeran will accompany you and be available for rehearsals with you prior to callbacks.”

Liam had since then made his way to the back of the theater rather than the back of the stage where he was before and was startled when someone spoke up beside him, “Hey,” he nearly falls into the trash bin he was hiding behind.

“Hey,” he turns around to see Zayn smiling down at him with an arm extended to help him up. “So you decided to audition after all?”

“Uh, no” Liam takes his hand and allows himself to be pulled up, “have you?”

“No,” Zayn shakes his head, “but why were you hiding behind a bin?”

Liam flushes a deep shade of red and turns to leave when Zayn calls out, “It’s your mates right? They don’t know you’re here.”

“Right,” Liam turns back to face Zayn who grabs his hand and pulls them both into seats at the back of the theater.

They watch in horror as tons of hopeful students stride across the stage to audition only to be shot down or choke up before they can even begin. All the while Louis and Harry sit up front looking on in digust. Louis vocalized his disgust, muttering snarky remarks while Harry just sort of stared on and tried not to make faces, even though they were all pretty much terrible.

“Uh, Ms. Perry is a bit…” Liam tried to think of a word that perfectly described her, “nasty.”

“Wow, St Peters very own resident superstar is afraid?” Zayn seemed amused at this bit of information.

“I’m not afraid I’m just…” Liam was having a hard time talking today, “scared.”

“Well I am too.” Zayn shrugged as if it was nothing, “Terrified actually.”

“And for the lead roles of Nicholas and Arnold the only pair signed up as usual are Louis Tomlinson and Harold Styles. Why don’t you boys go up there and show everyone how it’s done?”

“We’d love to,” Louis stands and pushes past Harry who purses his lips pensively as they both trot onto the stage.

“What key?” Edward asks Harry as Louis dolls himself up.

“Oh,” Harry blinks at the ginger, “we had our rehearsal pianist do an arrangement.”

They start singing a song Liam doesn’t realize and figures Zayn doesn’t know either and they’re dancing and Ms. Perry is clapping. Harry does some sort of goofy looking dace move that Louis clearly doesn’t approve of judging by the way he glares at the curly haired boy and when they’re done Ms. Perry is all but handing them their scripts immediately.

“I told you not to do the sprinkler.” Louis hisses.

“That was pure gold Tommo my boy, everyone loves the sprinkler.”

Louis looks about ready to punch the younger boy and Edward claps in hopes to avoid a confrontation in the near future with the flippant teen. Everyone else soon joins in clapping and the pair move to take a bow.

“Well, are there any last minute sign ups?” Ms. Perry asks.

“Don’t be discouraged, the theater club needs than just singers. It needs fans too.” Harry smiles sweetly at the sad looking students. “Buy tickets!”

“Actually,” Edward follows Louis backstage, “if you get the part I imagined it to be much slower—”

“If we get the part?” Louis snaps, his eyes burning holes into Edward’s, “Edward, I’ve been in seventeen school productions, and how many times has your music been used in one?”

“This would be the first.” Edward is not really sure where Louis is going with this.

“Exactly” he laughs, “now what does that tell us?”

“Um, that I should write you more solos?” he takes a stab at it.

“No, it tells us that you do not offer direction, suggestion or commentary, and you should be thankful that Harry and I are here to make your shitty songs sound decent. Are we clear?”

“Crystal.” Edward rolls his eyes and makes his way back over to the piano. “So glad we had this conversation.”

Louis makes a point to flip his fringe out of his eyes before saying directly into the mic, “Nice chatting with you,” and walks away.

“Last call for last minute sign ups.” Ms. Perry calls and Liam gets a bit anxious.

“I think we should leave,” he whispers, but Zayn is already halfway down the aisle.

“I’d like to audition, actually.” He announces and Liam is just about ready to jump into a pit of lava.

“Timeliness means something in the world of theater Mr. Malik. The individual auditions have long since been over and there are simply no other pairs.” Ms. Perry gathers her things and heads to leave the theater and Zayn looks so determined and Liam can’t let him get turned down like this.

Can he?

“I’ll sing with him.” Liam blurts out before he can even think it through and he’s dragging along to stand next to Zayn who is beaming at him.

“Liam Payne?” Ms. Perry stares at the pair incredulously, “where is your sports posse or whatever it’s called?”

“Team,” Liam corrects her, “It’s called a sports team actually, but I’m here alone and apparently I’m here to sing with Zayn.”

“Yes, well we take these shows very seriously here at St Peters. I called for the pairs audition and you didn’t respond so free period is now over.” Ms. Perry makes her way towards the exit and no this can’t happen, not to Zayn.

“He has an amazing voice,” Liam tried but Ms. Perry isn’t listening.

“Perhaps the next musical,” she waves the idea away and Liam has never hated anyone in his life more than he hates their teacher at the moment.

“She’s a right cunt isn’t she?” Edward asks from his perch at the piano and Liam is kind of taken aback.

“What?” his eyes are huge in distaste at the use of his choice of language.

“Sure is,” Zayn agrees though and makes his way over to where he’s at the piano.

Liam follows and sticks his hand out in a form of introduction, “I’m Liam”

“I know who you are,” he says, but shakes his extended hand anyway, “everyone knows who you are. I’m Ed by the way.”

“Zayn,” he calls out his own name and looks pointedly at the papers sitting on the piano. “Is this how the duet is supposed to sound?” he’s leafing around through Ed’s music.

Ed nods, “Yeah, want me to play it?”

They both nod and he begins to play the song that Liam can now see is called, _Fall_ , on the piano at a much slower pace and surprisingly Liam is the first to sing along.

“You and I,” he starts.

“Two of a mind,” Zayn joins in and Liam can’t help the smile that overtakes his face. “This love’s one of a kind.”

“You and I,” he’s staring at Zayn wholeheartedly now.

“We’re drifting,” Zayn turns so he’s leaning his back against the piano turned to face Liam.

“Over the edge” Liam sings.

“And I will fall for you” they sing together, and Liam is sure Zayn’s staring right into his soul “and I will fall for you” their fronts are pressed closely against one another and it’s almost as if no one else is in the room “If I fall for you, would you fall too?”

Liam has to stop himself before he does something stupid. Something reckless. So he stops singing and Ed stops playing and, “Wow that’s nice.” He says.

“Better than whatever it was Louis and Harry did to it.” Zayn agrees but he’s still looking at Liam and their bodies are still pressed together and—lol

“Malik, Payne!” They turn to see Ms. Perry walking down the aisle, “You’re lucky I came back to get my thermos. You have a callback, Edward give them the duet from the second act. Work on it with them.” She grabs her belongings and makes a swift exit.

“Alright,” Ed nods and Zayn beams at Liam before turning to give his full attention to Ed who is scheduling times for them to rehearse. “If you want, I can arrange to meet up during free period or like lunch or even biology. I can rehearse anytime to be honest.”

Liam’s being handed sheet music that he can’t even read and he frowns. He’s not sure if he’s more upset that he actually is maybe possibly going to go along with this singing thing now or if it’s because of loss of physical contact with Zayn.

-

“CALLBACKS?” Louis shrieks and it will forever go down as the scream that was heard school wide.

Harry reads the paper in front of them in alarm, albeit in a calmer manner than Louis, “Callbacks for the roles Nicholas and Arnold will be held in the theater on Thursday at 3:30 pm in the Auditorium.” He speaks the next part slowly, “Harold Styles and Louis Tomlinson…. Zayn Malik and Liam Payne.”

“Is this really happening?” Louis is rubbing at his temples in an attempt to calm down. “They didn’t even bloody audition.”

“Maybe we’re being Punk’d!” Harry provides.

“What?”

“Maybe we’re being filmed right now,” Harry works himself up, “maybe we’ll get to meet Ashton Kutcher!”

“Oh shut up Harry, you idiot!” Louis snaps and turns when hears laughter to bite the head off of whomever it belonged to.

“What’s wrong?” Niall asks Louis who just points at the callbacks sheet and his entire face falls, “What?” he can’t believe his eyes and, “This must be a joke.” He goes to find Liam because haha this isn’t funny and Louis storms off as well, with Harry in tow.

-

The entire day Liam tried his best to avoid his friends, mainly Niall and Louis Tomlinson in general. Things were going pretty smoothly so far, he’d faked sick when got there and was able to hide away in the nurses office until lunch when she’d encouraged him to go eat because it’d make him feel better.

He took his sweet time heading to the cafeteria, making sure to take the paths less travelled by Niall and his crew. But as soon as he got inside he felt Louis glare piercing sharply into his skin so hard that it was crawling and all he wanted to do was turn around and leave, go home, but that would require his father signing him out, which he was not about to ask him to do.

“How dare Zayn sign up?” Louis screeches. “I’ve already picked out the colors for my dressing room.”

“And he doesn’t even want to be a part of drama club.” Harry adds and Ed rolls his eyes, wondering why he’s even being forced by Louis to waste his lunch with them when they clearly aren’t even going over music.

“Someone’s got to tell him the rules.” Louis slams down on their lunch table.

“Exactly,” Harry agrees, “and what are the rules?”

“Ugh!” he turns away from the table and seeks out Zayn’s appearance in the cafeteria.

“I’ve got a confession!” someone basically yells out from Liam’s usual table and he’s hiding behind a trash bin so he can’t really see who it is, “If Liam can tell his secret than so can I. It’s more of an obsession actually.”

“We all know how much you like to fap Samuels, that’s not much of a secret.” Niall jokes and the entire table roars in laughter.

“I bake.”

“What?” Niall sobers up.

“I love to bake, tarts, scones, and especially biscuits.” Andy shrugs.

“Shut the fuck up, Samuels, are you taking the piss?” Niall lowers his eyes in contempt.

“Someday I hope to make the perfect Mince pie.”

The entire cafeteria which had fallen silent at his sudden confession was soon being filled with hushed whispers about the latest and breaking news.

“Hip hop is my passion!” a girl named Cher Lloyd in their class yelled out over the chatter. “I know I’m usually quiet but—” she jumps up on her table, “I love to pop and lock and jam and break.” She demonstrates each dance move as she names it.

“Is that even legal?” one of her friends ask and another calls out, “Nothings cooler than homework!” So she takes her seat and buries her head back into the book she was reading as if she hadn’t just blurted out one of her deepest secrets and danced on a table in the cafeteria in front of the entire school.

“I play the cello!” a skater named Olly Murs yells out and Louis has had just about enough.

“Everyone shut up!” Louis is standing on _his_ table now. “This is not what I wanted or what I planned. I don’t understand what’s going on, or why you all are suddenly confessing your stupid habits. No one gives a shit, and the fact that you think people do just shows that something is really—”

“Something’s not right here!” Harry adds in.

“—really wrong, and you all need to go back to where you belong in your own little corners of the world where no one knew you existed.”

“Wow he’s such a prick,” Liam hears from behind him and nearly jumps ten feet in the air.

“Zayn, bloody hell you scared me.” Liam sighs.

“You have a thing for hiding behind bins?” Zayn asks, amusement etched all over his place.

“No, I uh just…” Liam trails off.

“Come on then,” Zayn grabs Liam with his free hand, the other nursing a plate of nachos and he pulls Liam out from behind the bin and starts walking them across the cafeteria as if they aren’t the sole reason for the crash social hierarchy at their school right now. “Why is everyone staring at you?” he turns to ask Liam.

“Uh, not me… Us.” Liam gulps.

“Is this because of the callbacks?” Zayn asks and Liam nods. Zayn tries, he really does, not to roll his eyes but he sees Louis and Harry storming down the steps straight towards them.

Zayn tries to pull them away from Louis, but ends up being bombarded by Liam’s friends, Niall talking so fast his accent lilts everything and nothing makes sense, he flips them back around in the opposite direction and runs right into Louis.

He’s met with fierce blue eyes and a loud screech when he looks down to see his nachos has been wasted on Louis’ shirt. “Oh I’m sorry about that mate,” he pats Louis on the shoulder, “I was really looking forward to eating those too.” He clutches Liam’s hand tighter and pulls them away from the scene of the crime.

“What is going on here?” Ms. Perry appears next to Louis.

“Look at this!” Louis points to his now ruined button up, “Look at what this Zayn character has done to me, on _PURPOSE_!” he throws his arms up in the air. “It’s all a part of their plan to ruin our musical! Liam and his track buddies are all behind it.” He points, “and that’s why he auditioned you know?” he puts on fake tears like the true actor he is. “It just doesn’t seem right.” He stalks off to try and salvage his shirt.

-

Niall catches up to them in the hallway and damn near yanks Liam’s arm off when he turns them around.

“Whoa, what’s going on Niall?” Liam asks calmly.

“You tell me!” Niall glares at Zayn then turns his gaze back to Liam, “You missed free period gym yesterday to audition for some awful musical, and now everyone is running around confessing their secrets!”

“What?” he tries to play the confused card.

Andy walks by and Niall grabs him by the shoulder, “Yeah, Andy is baking now. Scones and Mince pie and shit.”

“Oh, I love Mince pie!” Liam would do anything to get the pressure from his best mate off his back right now.

Andy gets excited, “Me too! I’d like to one day enter mine into a comp—”

“Shut the fuck up Samuels!” Niall pushes him away.

Liam realizes he doesn’t feel the familiar weight of a hand in his anymore and turns to see Zayn has left him alone with Niall.

“Do you see what’s happening here, mate? Our team is falling apart because of your singing thing.” Niall points a finger at Liam’s chest. “Suddenly people are doing other stuff. Stuff that’s not their stuff.” He gestures to where Olly and Andy are talking over by his locker, then over to where Cher and Ed were walking down the hall together and Liam didn’t see what the big deal was.

“Look they’ve got you thinking about show tunes when our big meet is next week.” Niall is pointing back at him. “You better get your head in the game.” He warns him before walking off.

-

“Is Louis honestly still pissed about that shirt? I said I was sorry, he ought to nut up and shut up about it.” Zayn mumbled around a cigarette.

He and Liam were standing round the back the school, both of them on edge about today’s lunchtime activities.

“Look, it’s just that,” Liam starts, “no one has beaten out Louis for a musical since primary school.”

“I wasn’t trying to beat anyone out.” Zayn explains, “We both weren’t even auditioning we were just singing and she came out of nowhere and gave us a callback. What the fuck is wrong with him?”

“Well we won’t be able to convince Louis of that.” Liam shrugs. “I’m sure if Louis could figure out how to play two parts at once, he’d even drop Harry in a second as well.”

“It just happened, but I liked it, a lot.” Zayn turned to look Liam in the eye, “didn’t you?”

“I uh—”

Zayn lets Liam stammer a bit before easing his pain, “It’s like when I’m with you, there’s this whole person inside of me just waiting to come out.”

“What?”

The bell rings for them to get to class.

“I guess what I’m trying to say here is I can truly be myself when I’m with you.” Zayn answers smoothly, shoots Liam a quick smile before stamping out his cigarette and heading inside

-

Zayn gets a text from Liam to meet him up on the rooftop garden of their school before fifth period, and although Zayn wasn’t keen on being late to class he decided if poster boy Liam was willing to be late then he’d be fine with it as well.

“Wow,” Zayn marvels when he walks up, “It’s like a jungle up here.”

“Yeah just like that cafeteria.” Liam agrees.

“Right and now I’m sure the entire school that didn’t even know I existed before today now collectively hates me.” Zayn stood next to him.

“No, what, no one hates you.” Liam waves away the idea.

“s'Not like I give two shits either way.” Zayn shrugs. “So this is your private hideout?”

“Yeah, thanks to the Science club.” Liam nods, “None of my mates know about this place.”

“You’ve really got this school wired, don’t you Liam?” Zayn smiles up at him, “Seems to me like you’re the guy everyone wants to be best mates with.”

Liam laughs but quickly goes serious,“Yeah that’ll all change if we lose this track meet next week though.”

“It must be tough being the coach’s son.”

“Yeah, it can be a bit hard sometimes I guess.” Liam considers, “I’m more worried about what my dad’s going to say when he finds about the singing thing. All my parents’ friends and everyone really just knows me as the lad who runs really fast and I’m tired of that I just want to be a normal teenage lad for once in my life.”

“They don’t know enough about you then,” Zayn challenges. “At my other school I was pretty much what I am here, a bit of a social outcast. My mum was a professional actress on Broadway in America and because of her fame a lot of the things my family went through were often publicized. Which means everything I did was under public scrutiny.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well no one wants to hang out with the teenage delinquent.” Zayn explained. “I got busted a few times for tagging and stuff and suddenly I have a record and parents don’t really want their kids hanging out with someone who is all caught up in the law, so,” Zayn shrugged.

It was silent for a moment, both of them taking in the incredibly nice weather in England for it to be the middle of January.

“So are we really going to do the callbacks?” Zayn asks moving in closer, pressing up against Liam like he did the other day at the piano. “We don’t have to if you don’t want to,” he adds.

“Yeah, let’s do this; I think we should do this.” Liam nods, trying to convince himself more than he is Zayn, “I mean, you only live once, right?”

“That’s the motto.” Zayn shrugs and they both laugh. “You’re just a normal teenage lad to me, Liam.” Zayn’s got him backed into a corner now, “Thanks for showing me your super-secret hiding place.” He throws his arms around Liam’s neck and Liam is sure something is about to happen, something he’s sure he wants but won’t attempt to go for himself.

But the warning bell rings and Zayn’s talking more to the ground than he is Liam, “I guess I better go to class now. Wouldn’t want to be late.” He drops his arms and turns to leave.

All Liam wants to do is pull him back in and tell him he can’t just not finish what he’s started here. But he doesn’t and Zayn leaves him standing there breathless, heart pounding a mile a minute and Liam doesn’t even care that he’s definitely going to be late for biology.


	2. End

Days fly by literally in a flurry of track practice and callback rehearsals and all Liam can think about is Zayn when he’s with the boy and when he’s not all he can think about is how long it’ll be until they’re together again.

He wants to find that mildly creepy but Liam is actually genuinely happy for once in his life after realizing that he was in fact _unhappy_ with how things have been so far. Liam was so sure nothing could bring him down, but was about to realize that all great things come to a sweltering, heart-wrenchingly terrible end.

-

Liam and Zayn both got wrangled into painting the set designs for the musical, but neither of them really minded. They spent most of their time sat close together humming the melody of the song they’d been practicing for callbacks or just talking about whatever popped in their heads at the time.

Apparently while they were to be practicing in secrecy, the both of them were almost caught by their arch-enemies.

“Yeah I was in the toilet trying to take a piss, I guess I got a bit loud though because Louis came stomping in.” Zayn explained while painting a crater into the giant moon they’d be hanging on stage for the play.

“What’d he do?” Liam inquired from his perch next to him, brushing glitter lazily onto a star.

“Nothing! I shut my gob. But I’m sure he wouldn’t dare hit me or anything. Maybe try and like trip me up the steps or poison my food or something.”

Liam hummed in response. “Yeah, I was in an empty classroom and Harry walked by. The door was locked, but he actually got on the floor and looked underneath. I’ll admit I was a bit scared for my life.”

“Scared of Styles?” Zayn snorted, “I’d bet you could take him if he tried to swing at you.”

“You are so hostile,” Liam shook his head but smiled anyway. “Not everything has to end with someone getting hit.”

“What’s the point of those rippling muscles that are basically bursting out of your shirt if you don’t ever use them?” Zayn smiled back.

Liam was flustered at that comment, “I don’t use my size to intimidate people,” he blushed, “but I do use them, like in track and—oh sh-crap.” He scrambled up out of his seat.

“What?”

“I was supposed to be at practice,” Liam glances up at the clock hanging on the wall behind them, “thirty minutes ago.”

“It’s already half three?” Zayn asks but Liam is already gone and Zayn is trailing after him out the door and down the corridor to the field.

He got there before Liam, assuming that’s because he had to go change into his track uniform, and sat on the bottom of the bleachers. The group was huddled up and Coach Payne was in the middle of their circle turning and pointing at each member mumbling something Zayn couldn’t hear. They stayed like that for a moment until he blew his whistle and they all dispersed.

Most headed in his direction to go back into the changing rooms and get ready to go home. He spotted Niall staring hard at him and rolled his eyes. He didn’t have time for this.

“What are you doing here?” Niall asked, wiping his brow with the bottom of his top. He didn’t exactly sound angry, but he didn’t seem too pleased to see Zayn there.

“Can I not watch you lot practice?” Zayn attempted to have a civil conversation with him.

Niall looked at him confused for a moment before answering, “Liam isn’t here.”

“Yes, I am.” Liam jogged down the path to where they stood.

“You’re late.” Niall turned to look at him, then back at Zayn.

“I know,” was all Liam said before turning to face the wrath of his father.

Niall took that as his cue to leave, but not before shooting Zayn a warning glance at which he just smiled and waved at.

“Um hi,” Liam approached his father slowly, “I’m just gonna… stay here, and practice a bit.” He avoided eye contact at all costs. “I’ll see you at home.”

His father nodded and turned to leave without saying a word.

Zayn watched Coach Payne leave before walking over to join Liam where he was stretching on the track.

He glanced around aimlessly before opening his mouth, “So this is your real ‘stage’” he air quoted.

“Yeah,” Liam glanced up at him, “I guess you could call it that. Or just the field.”

Zayn plopped down on the grass behind him and pulled his knees up just below his chin.

“Are you checking out my bum?” Liam wriggled a bit and looked back at Zayn through the spread of his legs.

“’Course not,” Zayn shrugged, “unless you wanted me to.”

Liam blushed and stood up straight. “I wouldn’t mind. I mean like, I _know_ I have a nice bum and I’d be okay with it if you were to, I guess it—”

“Chill Li,” Zayn laughed, “don’t be such a prat.”

Liam gasped, “Hey I missed practice for you!”

“I wasn’t forcing you to sit there and paint the entire galaxy with me!” Zayn shouted.

“Hey I was just kidding, alright.” Liam sat down cross-legged in front of him.

“You’re quite shit at jokes then,” Zayn quipped, then a moment later, “I’m kidding.”

“That wasn’t very funny!” Liam pounced forward on him. He was genuinely worried that he’d pissed Zayn off.

“Yours wasn’t funny either, mate!” Zayn attempted to swat Liam off of him but ended up hitting him square in the nose.

Liam groaned and rolled over off of him clutching at his nose in pain.

“You alright there?” Zayn crawled over to where he lay and sat on top of him, legs splayed on each side of Liam’s torso. “Move, let me see.” He tried to swipe his hands away, but Liam wouldn’t budge. “Hey, stop being a twat and move your hands.”

Liam complied and pulled his hand away from his aching nose. After a short but intense inward battle he settled on placing his hands firmly on Zayn’s hips and waited for a reaction.

Zayn leaned forward and flicked his eyes up to meet his for the briefest of seconds, his lips twitching into a smirk before he let his attention fall back to his nose. “You’re alright, yeah?” he asked and Liam nodded. “It’s just a bit red. You’ll survive.”

“I don’t know, it really hurts.” Liam bit at his lip when Zayn’s eyes crinkled up into little smiles along with his lips. “You’ve probably seriously injured me.” His thumbs absentmindedly rubbed circles into the exposed skin of Zayn’s waist where his shirt had ridden up.

“Don’t be such a baby.” Zayn rolled his eyes but leaned in closer anyway and pressed a feather light kiss to the reddest part of Liam’s nose. “Better?” he asked, lips still close enough to brush skin when he spoke.

Liam opened his mouth to answer, “yes”, “no”, anything but couldn’t speak so he settles on nodding in response which caused Zayn’s lips to graze the expanse of skin right between his own lips and his nose.

Zayn’s eyes flickered down to his lips then back up to his eyes, “Good,” he let out a breathy laugh, “next time don’t be such a pussy.” He went to get up but Liam’s hands on his waist tightened and, “Oh now you decide to put those muscles to good use.”

They’re flipped now, Liam hovering over Zayn, lying between the open V of Zayn’s bent legs. He squeezes them around Liam’s sides as he leans down closer until they’re face to face.

“I’m not a pussy,” Liam mumbles and presses close to finally fucking do it, but—

“Ahem,” a booming voice is clear behind them and Liam shoots back and scrambled up onto his feet.

“Er, dad I uh—”

“I’m sorry,” his father ignores him and turns his attention straight toward Zayn, “but this is a closed practice.”

“Practice is over.” Liam tries but is cut off once again.

“Not until the last player leaves the field.” His dad quips and Liam gets the hint and shuts up.

“I was just about to leave,” Zayn gets up and brushes the grass off his clothes.

“And you are?” Coach Payne asks.

“Zayn,” he answers, figures he has to since he is staff, “Zayn Malik”

“Oh your detention mate?” the elder Payne turns his attention to his son now.

Liam stared at his father in shock, a bit scandalized at his accusations.

“Right, well I’m going to go,” Zayn huffs, “it was nice meeting you Coach Payne.” He walks off the field, back towards the school.

“You as well, Mr. Malik.” Coach Payne calls after him.

“Dad,” Liam starts up anger quelling in his chest, “detention was my fault, not his.”

“You haven’t missed practice in three years,” his dad points an accusing finger at him, “then that bloke shows up and—”

“That _bloke_ is named Zayn and he’s cool, okay.” Liam spits.

“Really?” his father crosses his arms over his chest. “Because making you miss practice doesn’t seem very _cool_ to me.”

“He’s just a guy, okay!”

“But you’re not, Liam!” his father shouts, “You’re the team leader. What you do not only affects the team, but it affects the entire school.” He claps a hand on his sons shoulder. “Without you completely focused, we’re not going to win next week.”

“That’s all you care about! That bloody championship!” Liam steps back away from his fathers’ touch. “What about what I want?”

“You’re not a singer, Liam! You’re our champion!”

“Did you ever think that maybe I could be both?”

Neither of them realized that they were both shouting and could be heard clear across the field. Which is why Liam was surprised to see Niall, Andy, and the rest of his team standing over by the gym doors when he had decided the conversation was over and ran back to the changing rooms to grab his belongings and leave.

“Liam,” Niall went to put a reassuring had on his shoulder but it fell flat when Liam pushed past him, all of them, and into the changing room. He stared at his best mate’s retreating figure and turned back to the team, “let’s go.”

-

The next day at school Liam does his best to stay isolated, but really sucks at it because he’s not used to being without Niall or alone period, ever.

“You’ve been avoiding me all day,” Niall slams a book down on the desk Liam occupied in the library.

“I have not,” Liam argues but gets up and moves past him over to the shelves of books by the far end corner.

Niall is hot on his heels, following him the entire way, “What kind of spell does this weird cigarette smoking leather coat wearing—”

“He doesn’t have me under any kind of spell okay.” Liam sighs.

“Then why do you suddenly want to be in a musical?”

“I just do, okay!” Liam whispered loudly. “Who cares?”

“What do you mean who cares?!” Niall is incapable of anything quieter than a shout, “How ‘bout me, your most loyal best mate?”

“Quiet in here Mr. Horan!” the librarian rushes over to hush them up.

“It’s him Ms. Cole, not me!” Niall puts his hands up claiming his innocence until she stalks away back to her desk.

“Look, you’re a track star,” Niall grasps his shoulder, “not a musical singer person.”

Liam knocks his hand off and walks down the aisle to get away from him once again.

“Have you ever seen Robbie Williams on the Olympics?” Niall asks him.

“What? The guy from Take That? Where are you going with this?” Liam spins to face him.

“Exactly my point!” Niall points.

“You didn’t make a point! That made no sense!” he turns to leave again.

“How about Tricia Brannan?”

“What?”

“She’s some washed up famous actress from Broadway.” Niall explains. “My mum’s got some sort of crush on her. She keeps pictures of her in the pantry. Not hung in frames or posted onto her wall but in the pantry and the cupboards and even the refrigerator.”

“I don’t—”

“So my point is if you run track you’re going to end up in the Olympics. But if you sing in musicals you’ll end up in my mum’s fridge.”

“Why would she put pictures of her in the fridge?”

“Hell if I know!” Niall throws his arms up in exasperation. “Look I don’t attempt to understand the female mind, Liam. Maybe it’s one of her wonky diet ideas—”

“Ssshhh!” the librarian is back and just about ready to kick them out.

They both go and sit back down at Liam’s desk in hopes of not making more of a commotion.

“Look how do you expect the rest of the team to be focused on the game when you’re off in a leotard or a onesie or whatever singing songs a capella and shit?”

“You’re over exaggerating” Liam rolled his eyes. “No one said anything about leotards.”

“Not yet mate, but just you wait and see.” Niall pushes the book that Liam had opened away from him in hopes to grab his full attention. “We need you Liam, you’re our captain.”

“Mr. Horan please,” the librarian comes to stand behind him.

“I’ve tried to quiet him down Ms. Cole,” Niall smiles sweetly at her. “He’s just a hard headed little bugger though, I’ve tried telling him. I really have.”

-

Louis was walking down the hall with Harry typing out a very important message onto his Twitter about the importance of proper hair care products when someone ran into him.

“Watch where you’re going!” his head snapped up in an instance to meet the eyes of Niall Horan and two of his lackeys standing close behind him.

“Sorry mate, don’t get your pants all in a bunch,” the blonde apologized and brushed past him into the classroom behind them.

Louis’ eyes followed them and an eyebrow shot up when he realized what was going on. “Something isn’t right here.” He grabbed Harry’s hand and pulled him over to the doorway.

In the abandoned classroom along with Niall and his crew were Cher and her study buddies. Louis was surprised to see her with them seeing how after her big announcement in the cafeteria she made it a point to spend most of her free time hanging out with Ed and Zayn.

“They must be trying to figure out a way to make sure Liam and Zayn actually beat us out.” Harry murmured into Louis’ ear. “These sports stars already run most of the school, and if they get Liam into the musical then they basically own the entire student body.”

“And not to mention this guy Zayn is trying to steal Liam away from me!” Louis snapped. “I’m supposed to hook up with him and be the arm candy of the most popular guy in school.”

“Right and I’ll just be here.” Harry rolled his eyes.

“Harry,” Louis said seriously, “we have to save our show from people like them. People who don’t know the difference between a Tony Award and Tony Hawk.” He turned and stalked off down the hall, already preparing a plan to get rid of the amateurs trying to steal away his limelight.

-

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Cher asked.

“It’s the only way to save Liam and Zayn from themselves.” Niall chided and Cher nodded in agreement.“So we’re doing this, yeah?”

“Of course, yeah!” Cher nodded even more fervently and Niall couldn’t resist the smile that took over his face. This girl was putty in his hands, plus she was easy on the eyes so, he wasn’t really complaining.

“Alright so, we’ll start tomorrow then.” He held out his hand to shake.

“Okay! First thing tomorrow, meet by the statue out front.” She placed her hand in his and blushed profusely when he leaned forward and brushed his lips across her knuckles in what she assumed was a kiss.

“Cheers,” he let her hand go and turned to leave. “Let’s go.”

-

The next day the pair met where they’d agreed to, by the mammoth sized statue of a wolf in the front of the school.

Niall waved Cher over when he saw her approaching, “Okay so my watch has 7:45 Coordinated Universal Time, are we synched?”

“Yeah sure,” Cher nodded up at him, not really sure what he was actually talking about.

“Alright then we’re on at lunch time, exactly 12:05 we strike!”

“Yeah Niall okay sure,” she smiles and hands him a paper. “But we’re not Charlie’s Angeles and you’re not like James Bond or anything okay.”

“I can dream can’t I?” he laughs but accepts the papers anyway.

“You’re cute,” she smacks a lip to his cheeky before turning to leave and Niall can’t believe that for once he’s left speechless.

-

The bell rings for lunch and Liam gets a text from Niall to meet him in the changing room. He was reluctant to part from Zayn, they had spent their entire free period perfecting their callback song, but he figured he’d spent enough time avoiding his best mate and headed down anyway.

It was oddly quiet, none of the lads that were usually found mulling around could be seen and Liam briefly wondered if he was in the right place.

He rounded the corner to where their changing lockers were located and stopped short. There stood his team mates looking solemn and Liam gulped loudly before clearing his throat, “What’s going on here?”

“This is an intervention.” Niall clapped his hands and Andy pulled him over to a bench and stood in the doorway so he couldn’t escape.

“What?” Liam was confused.

“Do you see this?” Niall points to the wall above them lined with trophies and photos of past track star champions.

“What about them?” Liam asks.

“They’re legends!” Niall exclaims. “Now do you think any of them became legends by getting involved in musical auditions? Especially ones held just days before the biggest track meet of the season?”

“NO!” the team boomed in unison and Liam jumped a bit.

“These legends became legends because they never took their eye off the prize.” Niall explained. “Now, who was the first tenner ever to make it on the varsity team his starting race?”

“LIAM!” the team boomed again and wow Liam wished they’d stop doing that.

“So who voted him our team captain this year?” Niall asked.

“WE DID!”

“And who is gonna get their sorry asses kicked in at the big meet this Friday if Liam is worried about an audition?”

“WE ARE!” they were quieter this time, which Liam appreciated, although it didn’t help him feel less like shit for letting his team down this bad.

“Come on, there are twelve people on this team not just me…” he tries to alleviate some of the pressure off himself.

“Just twelve?” Niall asks. “Oh no I think you’re forgetting about one very important thirteenth member of our squad.” He hands Liam a framed photo faced down.

Liam takes the photo and flips it over, “my dad,” he says.

“Yes Liam,” Niall nods, “St Peters track champion class of 1981. Champion, father, and now coach.” And if Liam wasn’t so beside himself he’d think his father put them up to this.

-

“Why am I being dragged into a classroom when there isn’t even class in session?” Zayn asks Ed who is trailing behind him looking just as confused as he feels.

“Just shut it for a second, will ya?” Cher continues pulling him into the room and pushes him down into an empty chair.

She sets a laptop up in front of them and starts typing up some things Zayn isn’t really paying attention to. He didn’t really want to be in there right now.

“Look me and Ed here, need to go rehearse.” Zayn moves to stand but stops when Cher flips a finger at him.

“Zayn!” she warns. “Plant your bum, and don’t move.”

He wasn’t afraid of her. He really wasn’t.

But he didn’t move after that.

-

“See here lads, if you don’t know that I’ll put 110% of myself into the meet this Friday then you don’t know me at all.” Liam lectures his team mates.

“But we just thought—” Niall starts.

“No, I’ll tell you what I thought! I thought that you all were my mates. Win together, lose together team mates.”

“Yeah but suddenly there’s Zayn and you’re singing.” Niall presses on.

“Look, I’m for the team, I’ve always been for the team. He’s just someone I met.” Liam tells them what they want to hear so they’ll leave him alone and maybe he can get back to practice with Zayn.

-

Zayn waits impatiently for whatever it is Cher is doing, he’s ready to just get up and leave, but won’t, fearful of what she’ll do if he tries.

He was just about to make another exasperated comment when Liam’s face popped up on the laptop screen and all the words in his mouth fell silent.

“The singing thing means nothing. I don’t know it’s probably a way to keep my nerves down, it means nothing to me okay. You’re my mates and this is our team. Okay, Zayn is not important. I’ll forget about him and I’ll forget about the audition and we’ll go out and get that championship.”

Zayn’s heard about enough and in an instant he’s up and out the door despite Cher’s protests.

-

“Everyone happy now?” Liam asks after spewing a load of bullshit at his team mates in hopes of getting them to shut up.

“Very,” Niall grins and starts up one of those ridiculous howls that Liam can’t help but join in on because his adrenaline is on high and he needs to release it somehow.

-

Lunch was nearly over. Zayn decided to spend most of it out back chain smoking until his lips were numb and his fingers stopped trembling. He’d just barely stopped seething when he traipsed back inside to gather his belongings from his locker and head to his next class.

Of course that all came rushing back when none other than Liam Payne stood before him smiling goofily, like he hadn’t just shouted to the world that Zayn was in fact unimportant, that he meant nothing to him.

“Hey, how are you?” Liam asked, leaning against the locker next to Zayn’s. “Listen, there’s something I want to talk to you about.” He wanted to tell Zayn about what just went down. About how his team mates didn’t trust him, tried to stop this, whatever it is they’ve got going between one another, but that he shut it down. Put a lid on it before it was too late.

But he didn’t.

“I get it okay. You don’t need to explain to me.” Zayn was doing a great job of ignoring his presence until then. “You’ve got your mates, and I get it. So let’s just leave it, yeah? We’re good.”

“Good about what?” Liam’s face crinkled up in confusion. “I was just coming to chat with you about the final callbacks.”

Zayn almost laughed out loud at that, “I don’t want to do the final call backs, alright?”

“What?”

“I mean,” Zayn spun around to face him, realizing his back was turned to Liam the entire time, “what were we trying to do here? Who do we think we are?” he actually did laugh this time, sharp and bitter, “you’ve got your team and the championships to worry about.”

“But I—”

“Save it, Li” Zayn slammed his locker shut and shoved his sheet music in Liam’s arms before turning to flee the scene before he did or said something they’d both regret.

-

Niall’s plan was shit. And he didn’t realize it was shit until it was all done and wow now he _feels_ like shit.

They were at practice. Liam was running his laps and Niall was his designated timer as always. But Liam was off, they both knew it. Everyone knew it, and everyone knew why.

He ran a hand through his blonde hair before tossing the time to Andy. He’s the one who fucked everything up, so he’s the one who had to fix it.

-

It was lunch the next day and Zayn had done a marvelous job of skipping every single class he had with Liam so far in hopes of never seeing his face again.

But as he exited the line apple in one hand, sandwich in another he almost dropped both when he nearly ran into Liam.

“Hey,” Liam all but whispered.

“Zayn!” Cher was waving him over and he didn’t want to be bothered with either of them so he chose to go outside and finish his lunch it relative silence and maybe sneak a smoke or two before the bell rang.

Of course Liam was left standing alone in the cafeteria. He’d just been dissed by the one person he really needed to talk to at the moment and the last thing he wanted was Niall clear across the cafeteria screaming his name at the top of his lungs.

Liam just shook his head as if to say, “not now” and headed towards the cafeteria doors

He needed an escape.

-

Escapes don’t come easy these days, apparently.

Liam had been up in the garden for maybe ten minutes in completely solitude when he heard footsteps coming up the stairs behind him. He turned around and grimaced at the sight of three of his team mates, Niall, Andy, and Josh.

“Hey,” Niall was the first to speak up. “We just had another team meeting.”

“Oh, wonderful!” Liam threw his arms up in the air but his tone had no bite to it. “You lot finally figured out how to do something without me there telling you what to do.”

“Exactly,” Niall nodded. “We had a team meeting about how we haven’t been acting much like a team lately.”

Liam’s eyebrows shot up.

“I mean us! We’re the ones being shit mates, not you.” Niall added and Liam gestured for him to go on. “Look, about the singing thing—”

“I don’t even want to talk about that.” Liam shakes his head. “Just drop it.”

“I just wanted you to know that we’re gonna be there, mate” Niall ignored his plea and continued on, “okay, we’ll be cheering for you, because that’s what mates do.”

“What?” Liam was confused.

Andy stepped in, “Yeah if singing is something you wanna do we should be encouraging you not…”

“Doing whatever the fuck we were doing.” Niall finishes. “Win or lose we’re team mates, alright, that’s what we’re about.”

Liam almost smiles at that.

“Yeah even though you might turn out to be the worst singer in the world!” Niall barks out a laugh and Andy punches him in the arm.

“Well we don’t know that since we’ve never actually heard you sing” Josh points out.

“Yeah and you’re not ever gonna hear me sing, alright?” Liam is physically tired and he just wants them to leave. “You know, Zayn won’t even talk to me? I don’t even know what I did. I just what to know what I’ve done to upset him.”

Niall sighs; a solemn expression falls on his face when he speaks. “Well uh, we do… know why he won’t speak to you.”

“Look here, I baked these biscuits fresh today” Andy digs in his backpack for the dessert before handing them over to Liam, “you might want to try one before we tell you the rest.

-

“Look here Zayn,” Cher stops him in the hallway, Ed following closely behind. “We’ve been jerks alright.” She starts up and Ed nods.

“What are you on about?” Zayn doesn’t want to be bothered with them right now.

“Niall, he thought that the singing thing would ruin Liam’s chances at the big meet this Friday.” She begins to explain.

“You and I both know I heard what he had to say.” Zayn said, “We’ve stopped alright, his attention is back on his team now. We’re done.” He went to walk away.

“No!” Cher grabbed his arm. “Just listen, okay. Niall knew that he could get Liam to say things to make you forget about the callbacks, alright. We planned it and we’re sorry.”

“No one forced Liam to say anything,” Zayn ripped his arm out of Cher’s grip, “and you know what it’s okay. We shouldn’t’ be sitting here harping on this. It’s time to move on.”

“No it’s not okay, Zayn.” Ed finally speaks up.

“Were you in on this too?” Zayn asks.

“Of course not!” Ed exclaims, “I wouldn’t have been working with you two nonstop if I was in on it as well. I was just as shocked as you when Liam said all those things because it didn’t seem like him.”

“Yeah, well he said it and now it’s—”

“So help me God if you say ‘it’s done’ one more time Malik.” Cher warns. “Look that bloody track meet is whatever I don’t really care, but how you feel about us, well I guess me, and more importantly Liam is all that matters.”

The bell rings and startles all three of them.

“Right, well…” Zayn trails off, “I’ve got to go, bye.”

-

Liam isn’t sure what time it is when he gets there, just knows that it’s late because the sun had gone down and the moon was high in the sky with crickets chirping wildly around him.

He walked up to the wooden door and knocked firmly on it twice.

The door opened and suddenly he was at a loss for words even though he practiced what he’d say the entire walk there. “Um, hi Mr. Malik, I uh— I’m Liam Payne.” He held out his hand to the older man.

“Liam, nice to meet you.” He shook his hand and turned around for a brief second before turning back to Liam. “Zayn is kinda busy with his art and stuff right now, so maybe you should come back later.”

“I made a mistake.” Liam starts his speech because he knows Zayn is back there and he can’t just leave without being heard. “I just— I would really like to let Zayn know that. Could you just tell him that I came by to see him?”

“I will, Liam” his father nodded, “goodnight.”

“Goodnight, thank you.” Liam nodded back and watched as the door was shut before him.

This is not how he planned this would happen. Zayn was at least supposed to hear him out.

As Liam walked down the path back out toward the street he looked back up at the house to see Zayn staring at him out the window. He tried smiling and waved, but almost instantly Zayn was gone and Liam couldn’t just let things end like this. He couldn’t.

This was risky, he knew things could turn out badly, but he did it anyway. Liam crept round back through the gate leading to the Malik household backyard and started up at a balcony that he only hoped belonged to Zayn.

Judging by the easel on it and the ridiculous amount of art supplies and cigarette butts ground onto the frame he assumed he was right, but wanted to be ssure anyway.

Liam pulled out his phone and dialed the number he now knew by heart in hopes that he wouldn’t be sent to voicemail.

It took a few rings, but Zayn answered. “Yeah?”

“What you heard the other day was not true.” Liam started. “I was sick of Niall and my mates bugging me about singing, so I said things I knew would shut them up and get them off my back. I didn’t mean any of it.”

“Hm, well you sounded pretty convincing to me.” Zayn sat on the edge of his bed willing himself not to hang up in his face.

“Look, the guy you met on holiday. That’s the real me, not that twat who said all that rubbish earlier.” Liam explained.

“Liam this whole singing thing is making the school all out of whack. I didn’t want to come here and be known as the guy who turned Liam Payne into a musical fiend and let down the entire team during championships.”

“Maybe, I don’t wanna be ‘the lad who runs really fast’ anymore. And if they all can’t handle it it’s not my problem it’s theirs.” Liam wasn’t up for arguing over the phone and came up with another terrible idea.

“Well what about your dad?” Zayn asks, “You can’t let him down.”

“It’s not about my dad,” Liam huffs. “This is about how I feel and I’m not letting the team down, they let me down.” His voice wavers a bit and Zayn thinks maybe he’s running. Running from him. “So I’m going to sing. What about you?”

“I don’t know, Liam.”

“Well you need to say yes,”

“And why should I?”

“Because, I brought you something.”

“What do you mean you brought me something?”

Zayn hears a bang outside on the balcony and turns around. He braces himself, gets ready to maybe kill someone because he’s not ready to die tonight.

“Shit Li!” Zayn nearly collapsed. “You scared me half to death! Why the fuck are you here on my balcony how did you even get up here, oh my—fuck!”

“Finally putting those rippling arm muscles to good use,” Liam shrugged. “Look, it’s a pairs audition.” He holds up Zayn’s sheet music. “I can’t do this without you.”

“Liam you fucking prat.” Zayn was still clutching his chest, but at least he was smiling when he moved forward and snatched the music out of Liam’s hands.

And Liam counts that as a small victory.

-

Days are all smeared into a jam of practice and even more practice, but at least Zayn is there with him smiling and teasing and he couldn’t be happier.

Ms. Perry finally got Zayn to join drama club. He figured he had nothing better to do, it was either that or sit around and wait for Liam to be out of track practice and Zayn was still a bit miffed at his team so the choice was easy.

He was explaining the relevance of post modernistic art in today’s society to Cher who could really care less while they both attempted to sew a curtain when his phone beeped.

“You’re lucky I’ve got to go.” Zayn tells her as he makes his way to exit the stage.

When he gets to his locker Liam is already there leaning against it, but Zayn can tell by the rise and fall of his chest that he’d just ran over there himself.

“You’re late,” Liam smiles.

“Oh shut up,” Zayn grabs his hand and guides them to the empty drama room where they were to meet up with Ed.

-

Harry rounded the corner in hopes to find Louis and was pleasantly surprised to find him standing in front of a closed classroom door.

“Hey Lou, what are you doing?” he asked and Louis shushed him.

“Listen,” he whispered and they both leaned their heads against the door to hear what was going on inside.

There was singing. Very distinctly, Zayn Malik singing and one could only assume Liam Payne accompanying him.

“Wow,” Harry breathed, “they sound good.”

“Ugh!” Louis cracked open the door and peeked in before silently closing it. “We have to do something! Even that pianist Edward is in on it too!”

“I think he goes by Ed,” Harry corrected him.

“Okay,” Louis waved for him to follow as he made a beeline to Ms. Perry’s office. “Our callbacks are on Thursday and the big track meet is on Friday.”

“Okay? I’m not following.” Harry stopped short in confusion.

“Too bad all these events aren’t happening on the same day!” Louis shouts.

Harry wasn’t getting it, “Yeah they aren’t…”

“At the same time…?”

“Well that wouldn’t work out because then Liam and Zayn wouldn’t be able to make the callbacks.” Harry sorted.

“Exactly.”

And then it hit him like a ton of bricks.

“Oh!” Harry clapped, “I’m proud to call you my best mate.”

“I know” Louis smiled and continued on his trek to find Ms. Perry.

-

“I don’t want to hear anything else and Liam Payne and Zayn Malik, alright?” Ms. Perry told Louis. She had taken a liking to Zayn once she’d got to know him after he agreed to join drama club.

Ed, who was just in the theater to collect his music ducks behind the piano to watch the scene unfold before him without getting caught by the drama aficionado, Louis.

“If you’re telling me as co-presidents of our Drama department that changing the date of the callbacks might actually be a good idea then… maybe I’ll agree with you.” Ms. Perry continues.

“Really?” Louis asked, surprised his plan was going over smoothly.

“Is there some reason why I shouldn’t trust you two, Mr. Tomlinson? Mr. Styles?”

“No ma’am.” Harry grins widely at her and she nods.

“Right, well I’ve got important things to handle. You two run along now.” She turns and rushes off the stage in a huff, flipping her hair over her shoulder in the process.

“Wait,” Harry turns to face Louis, “is that a yes?”

“Oh Harry,” Louis rolls his eyes. “My dearest friend. Poor, little, naive Harry.” He stands on his tippy toes and presses a kiss to the younger boys’ forehead before leaving him on the stage breathless.

“You fancy him don’t you?” Ed pops up from behind the piano and nearly startles Harry.

“What?” he asks and turns his attention from Louis’ retreating figure to Ed.

“You’re in love with him. Louis, aren’t you?” Ed asks again.

“It’s that obvious?”

Ed nods.

“Then why won’t he realize it?” Harry asks and Ed shrugs.

“Look, I’m not here to deal with your problems. But whatever you guys are up to, it won’t work.” Ed steps closer to him. “I know what you two are doing. You’re trying to fuck up Liam and Zayn’s chances of making the callbacks.”

“That’s not true…” Harry mumbles.

“Is it not?” Ed asks. “Or maybe you don’t really care if you’re not the lead roles for once. Maybe you’re just going along with it to please Louis. Anything to please Louis, right?”

“You have no clue what you’re talking about.”

“Sure I don’t. But I won’t let you to ruin my songs or this play. So if you love him as much as I think you do. I suggest you don’t let him do something he’ll later regret.” Ed finishes and leaves Harry standing stupidly in the middle of the stage in the theater.

-

**CALLBACK AUDITIONS RESCHEDULED TO FRIDAY BEGINNING AT 3:30 PM**

That’s what was posted on big bold black letters across the bulletin board in the front of school doors.

Liam and Zayn walked in flanked by Niall and Cher and various friends to see Ed standing staring blankly at the board before him.

“Hey you alright, Ed?” Liam asked and watched as Ed just pointed to the sign in front of him.

They all turned to get a look and Cher gasped.

“Callbacks the same time as the meet?” Liam couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“Why would they do that?”  Cher looks as if she’s about to cry.

“I smell a cunt named Perry.” Niall spits.

“Actually it’s two cunts.” Ed corrects him, “and neither of them are named Perry.”

“Do you know something about this random ginger kid?” Niall asks.

“It’s Louis and Harry. They have Ms. Perry under the impression that’s she’s protecting the show. But really they’ve only got her protecting themselves.” Ed turns to Liam.

“What the— do you know what I’m going to do to those two over groomed show dogs?” Niall cracks his fist and Zayn maybe admires that he’s always up for a fight.

“Nothing.” Liam stops him. “We’re not going to do anything to them, except sing, maybe. Now this is only going to happen if we all work together. Who’s with me?”

“You know I am!” Niall shouts and starts howling their school motto.

Everyone joins in and maybe, yeah they can do this.

-

It’s the day of the big track meet and callbacks and Liam kinda just wants to barf everywhere.

He doesn’t show it though. Especially not when Louis is standing right in front of him looking as smug as ever.

“I baked you a cake!” Andy shouts and places it in Louis’ arms. It’s the face masks of Comedy and Tragedy, which represent theater itself and he’s quite proud of how it turns out.

Louis smiles at the cake, but can’t help that he feels a little suspicious of Andy’s intentions.

Josh comes and pulls him over to the doorway and tells him to, “stand here” before jogging over to join his track team.

Louis nods, “okay” and is joined by Harry and Zayn on each side of him and Ms. Perry stood behind them.

The team who was all wearing their track suits like they do every game day lined up in a type of formation and one by one began to rip off their shirts.

Louis would be lying to himself if he said he wasn’t more than a little excited about this.

**GO DRAMA CLUB!**

Was written across the chests of all 12 boys and Louis clapped appreciatively at the gesture.

Especially Liam’s.

“Well it seems like we’re in for an interesting afternoon.” Ms. Perry says before walking back over to her throne.

-

The bell rang signaling the end of the school day. It was exactly 3:00 pm and the big meet was about to start any minute. Almost the entire school was filing out to the field, cheerleaders already down there spreading pep to the crowd of students, parents and teachers that were already seated on the bleachers.

“How are you feeling?” Coach Payne asked his son in the changing room where he was mentally preparing himself for the hectic afternoon ahead of him.

“Nervous,” Liam looks up at him from his perch on the bench.

“Yeah,” his father nodded, “me too.” He took a seat next to his son. “Do you know what I want from you today?”

“The championship?”

“That would be nice,” his dad smiles, “but what I want is for you to have fun.” He pats his son’s knee. “I know all about the pressure, and probably too much of it has come from me. What I really want is to see my son having the time of his life playing the sport that we both love. You give me that and I will sleep with a smile on my face no matter how the score comes out.”

Liam smiles, “Thanks coach, er… dad.”

“I love you son,” his dad slaps his knee before getting up and leaving to find the rest of the team.

-

Ed is at his piano setting up for Liam and Zayn’s audition and he can hear Louis and Harry warming up backstage in their dressing room.

The pair goes over their warm up routine and Louis clamps a hand on Harry’s shoulder, “I trust you.”

“Energy.” Harry replies and they both take deep breaths in preparation for their upcoming performance.

“Casting the leads of a show is both a challenge and a responsibility,” Ms. Perry explains to the small crowd behind them. “It is a joy and a burden. I commend you and all other young artists to hold out for the moon the sun and the stars.”

Everyone claps and she grabs Ed’s hand, “shall we soar together?”

-

Zayn and Cher are already sitting in the crowd on the bleachers when they see Liam, Niall and the rest of the team jog out and everyone breaks out into a loud uproar.

“Welcome everybody to the championship track meet between St Peters Collegiate School and Westhale Prepatory Academy!” the announcer calls out over the intercom while all the players head onto the field to stretch.

-

Louis and Harry perform a rousing rendition of their own musical mix. It’s a mash-up of Don’t Cha by the Pussycat Dolls along with Price Tag by Jessie J and Ed literally wants to blow his head off.

He looks down at his watch ad sees that it’s about time that Liam and Zayn should be arriving and wonders what’s the hold up.

-

Already halfway through the meet, Cher and Zayn had ducked away to an empty classroom within the school. Cher was working on something on her laptop while Zayn bit at his nails in an attempt not to go out for a smoke right before he got on stage.

“Alright wolvies, time for an orderly exit.” Cher hits a big red send button on her screen and within seconds all of the power is down on the field and the rest of the outdoor parts of the school.

“We seem to be experiencing some technical difficulties,” they hear the announcers and whistles start blowing everywhere. “We’ve got a time out on the field here.”

“We’ve got a problem,” the referee calls, “stop the game!”

Liam smiles and shares a glance with Zayn before running off the track and back into the school doors.

“Everyone remain calm, we’ll get this figured out real soon. In the mean time for safety regulations we need to all make an orderly exit off the field, please.” The referee announces into the microphone and Niall and the rest of the team makes a dash straight for the theater.

-

Louis and Harry were taking their bows and Liam and Zayn still hadn’t arrived, yet. The sparse crowd of students was clapping and Louis stepped forward waving wildly at his fans.

“Call me maybe!” Louis sang to a girl sitting in the front row before making his way off stage.

Harry threw his hat out into the crowd and followed close behind him.

“Do you see why we love the theater people?” Ms. Perry stood and made her way to the recently vacated stage. “Well done, boys!”

The pair bow again and take a seat.

“Next is Zayn Malik and Liam Payne.” Ms. Perry reads from her clipboard and repeats herself when she gets no response. “Zayn? Liam?”

“They’ll be here!” Ed jumps up.

“The theater, as I have often stated, waits for no one. I am sorry Edward.”

“That’s rubbish,” Ed mumbles but sits back down anyway. He has half a mind to wipe that smug look that Louis and Harry share off of their faces, but decides against it.

“Well,” Ms. Perry says, “I guess we are done here. Congratulations to all, the cast list will be posted.”

“WAIT!” Zayn calls out from the back of the theater.

Liam is running towards the stage now, “No Ms. Perry wait, we’re ready. We can sing.”

“I called your names, _twice_.” Ms. Perry points out.

“Ms. Perry _please_ ,” Zayn begs.

“I’m sorry but rules are rules.” She says but looks out into the crowd filing into the theater.

“We’re more than willing to perform again for our fellow students Ms. Perry,” Louis jumps back up on stage and begins waving at the crowd before him.

There are people coming in from every door. Niall leading them all and, “I don’t know what’s going on here but in any event it’s far too late and we have not got a pianist.”

“Well, sorry. That’s show business.” Harry appears next to Zayn and claps him on the shoulder but drops his hand before Zayn can shrug him off.

“We’ll sing without a piano!” Liam exclaims.

“No you won’t!” Ed jumps up and climbs onto the stage. “Pianist here Ms. Perry.”

“You really don’t want to do that, Louis threatens.”

“Oh shut the fuck up, Tomlinson!” Ed refuses the urge to push him to the ground and moves over to his piano. “Ready on stage.”

Ms. Perry is awestruck but nods and goes along with it anyway, “now that’s show biz.”

Louis scoffs and stomps off backstage with Harry hot on his heels.

Suddenly Liam is handing Zayn a microphone and this is all become too real.

Zayn needs a smoke or a drink or both because his nerves are buzzing and _shit_ is that his mum back there?

“Mum?” he calls into the mic and she starts waving madly. She’s seated next to his father with all three of his sisters next to her and, “I can’t do this.” He nearly drops the mic in the process of him trying to exit the stage.

Sure Zayn sings in front of his dad all the time. He walks around the house shouting various songs at the top of his lungs ranging from Chris Brown to Bruno Mars to Rihanna. But his mum, she’s never heard him sing. He won’t allow it.

She was a professional. How would she feel about him if she heard him sing and he _sucked_ and he can’t even think about that right now.

“Hey, hey look at me.” Liam grabs Zayn’s hand and interlaces their fingers. “Look right at me. This is like the first time we sang together. Remember?”

Zayn nods, he doesn’t remember much from that night but he does remember singing with Liam.

Liam grins and doesn’t let his hand go when he motions for Ed to start playing.

“You only know what I want you to,” Liam sings.

Zayn takes a deep breath, eyes locked with Liam’s. “I know everything you don’t want me to.”

“Oh your mouth is poison, your mouth is wine” Liam pulls them forward, arm wrapped around Zayn’s waist and a spotlight shines on the two.

“You think your dreams are the same as mine” Zayn feels less ready to bolt and kinda wants to just sink into Liam’s arms and stay there forever.

“Oh I don’t love you but I always will” they sing together and Niall is sitting in the crowd feeling maybe a little dumbfounded.

He never thought his best mate had a voice like that. Sure they joked around a bit when they were younger. Started a band that went nowhere Niall played guitar and they took turns singing but that phase ended and he figured they were on to bigger better things.

As it turns out this is in fact bigger and better things.

Cher was up on her feet clapping and screaming and swinging her hips and Niall had to pull her down in her seat.

“This isn’t that kinda song,” he told her.

“Does it look like I care?” she jumps back up and Niall decides to join her.

Soon the entire theater is hooting and hollering and the pair on stage is wrapping up their song.

“Oh I don’t love you but I always will, I always will”

The entire theater was up instantly giving the pair a standing ovation.

Zayn kinda wanted to puke, his mum looked so pleased, he’d never imagined the day she’d be the one watching him up on the stage. How she’d even known about his audition, he wasn’t sure but had a clue it involved Louis and Harry since they were so set on sabotage.

Liam on the other hand was riding on high right now. His dad was out back clapping and so was Ms. Perry and shit if they don’t get the lead roles in this play he might just actually die. He turned and motioned to Ed who took a bow.

Then both Liam and Zayn took their vows before exiting the stage.

“You were great up there,” Liam breathed.

“So were you,” Zayn leaned forward and pressed their foreheads together.

They were both breathing heavily, adrenaline rushing through their veins. It was thrilling singing on stage and getting such a positive response wore a more than welcome surprise.

Liam tilted his head just a bit, he didn’t want to ruin what could be _their_ moment but he felt like they were being watched.

After checking to see that in fact no one was backstage with them he pressed forward and brought his hand to the back of Zayn’s neck bringing them closer.

“Liam, mate! The powers back on we’ve got to go!” Niall runs backstage and, “Oops, sorry, I uh—”

“It’s fine,” Zayn laughs, it’s breathy and Liam can feel it brush against his lips, “you go, we’ll sort this out later.” He grabs Liam’s chin and presses a kiss to his cheek just as light as the one to his nose and Liam groans audibly.

But then Niall’s pulling at his arm and they’re running down to the field to buzzing with energy, both of them intent on winning that championship.

-

Needless to say they do win the championship.

Niall clears all his vaults with ease and it’s a close race but Liam beats that Westhale bloke who’d been staring him down right before the race started.

“St Peters wins the championship!” the announcer booms “Congratulations wolves you are still champions!”

Everyone’s jumping around and thrashing and Liam thinks he just got groped by one of the cheerleaders but then his dad is running over to him, and hands him a trophy that’s about half his height.

Niall starts howling and literally the entire St Peters half of the arena joins in and they sound crazy but then Liam is being lifted into the air by his team mates and he’s howling too and he sees Cher pulling Zayn. She’s pushing people out of the way in an attempt to make a path for them to get down to the field and _they’re_ howling too.

He’s set back down on solid ground after being spun around half a million times and hands the trophy over to Niall who takes a victory lap around the track with it all the while howling like an actual animal.

“I’m proud of you son,” Coach Payne wraps Liam in a bone crushing hug.

“Thanks dad,” he hugs him back and turns around when he’s being tapped on the shoulder.

“Bravo!” Ms. Perry exclaims.

And someone who sounds a lot like Josh yells out, “You rock Liam!” and Liam yells back, “No, _you_ rock!” but then he feels arms slink around his shoulders and, “Congrats Li,” is being whispered into his ear.

Liam spins around and is face to face with none other than Zayn Malik and his bright smile that looks so brilliant when it reaches his eyes like it does right now and Liam feels like he will literally just stop breathing and die if he doesn’t kiss those lips right now.

So he zeroes in on them, wraps his arms around Zayn’s waist, where they belong and thinks that maybe he’s thinking too hard about this. Maybe he should just _do_ it.

Zayn’s just there and he’s waiting and he seems almost expectant of it. His fingers are messing with the damp hair at the nape of Liam’s neck and his eyes are drooped low constantly flicking between Liam’s lips and his eyes and he bites his own lips when Liam leans forward, goes in for the kill.

“Aye Li!” Niall, whom Liam kinda wants to punch in the face appears beside them and thrusts a baton in Liam’s face. “Team voted you MVP captain!”

Liam stumbles back, “Yeah thanks a lot. Cheers Niall.”

“No problem!” Niall slaps a hand on his back before moving over to Cher who was currently dancing with the cheerleaders to some song the school band was playing. “So,” he shouts over the music to get her attention. “You’re going with me to the after party, right?”

“Like on a date?” she asks.

“It must be your lucky day!” he nods and Cher squeals before turning and running over to pull Zayn away from Liam once again. “Niall just asked me out on a date!”

“Uh, congrats?” Zayn was genuinely excited for his friend but couldn’t help but be annoyed that he wasn’t able to get just a second alone with Liam. Not to mention Louis was headed right toward him.

“Well I guess I have to say congratulations on successfully stealing my part.” Louis rolls his eyes and Harry smacks his arm. “I mean you were great, you deserve it. I guess I’ll have to learn to be the understudy of your part so… yeah, good luck, break a leg.”

-

Things get a lot easier after that.

Louis is less of a jerk, he finally accepts that he’s not the lead, but never lets Zayn forget that if he fucks up, even once he is more than willing to swoop in and steal the limelight from him. He also deals with the fact that he’ll never have Liam as his own, but he's kinda okay with that because he has Harry anyway.

Niall and Cher are dating now. They snogged at the after party for almost an hour straight before Niall found Liam and told him they were gonna continue whatever it is they were doing at his house instead of at the party.

Cher likes to explain in great detail the exploits of her love life to anyone within a ten foot radius. It’s a bit off putting at first but they all learn to just nod and accept it and Niall loves her for it anyway (well that, and because she tutors him in Calculus).

Harry became close friends with Ed who convinced him to tell Louis about his feelings. It takes nearly the entire term but right before summer holiday he confesses his love to Louis and they proceed to fuck in the back of his mum’s new car.

Zayn is a lot less brooding now. He talked to his mum about his role in the musical and she drives down every other weekend or they Skype and she’ll give him pointers and whatnot to make him the best actor he can possibly be, mostly because neither of them want him to lose his part to Louis.

Liam finally does it. He does it at the after party which was held at Andy’s house. There were various pastries and snacks and lots and lots of alcohol and Zayn was drunk and Liam wasn’t but he couldn’t help himself.

They were pressed close against one another in a not so secluded corner of Andy’s living room. He’d been leading up to it all night, not sure how to go about actually doing it. Actually kissing Zayn.

And Zayn was no help at all.

Well not until he hooked his fingers in Liam’s belt loops and pulled him close and ghosted his hot breath across Liam’s cheek and whispered drunkenly into Liam’s ear, “’Spose you wanna kiss now,”

The same words he said to Liam when they first met on New Year’s Eve, or rather New Year’s Day.

Except Liam’s not an idiot and takes him up on his offer this time.

He wastes no time in leaning forward, arms gripping at Zayn’s waist and slides their lips together in a body tingling kiss.

Zayn’s tongue is caked heavily with alcohol and Liam wonders for a brief second if he’ll remember any of this tomorrow, but then Zayn is scratching his blunt nails up and down his back as he presses in closer and Liam nearly keens.

They don’t fuck that night, but when they finally do it’s the night after their musical and it’s so great, Zayn comes twice over nothing but Liam pounding into him as he wriggled around on the bed untouched.

Liam somehow convinced Zayn that they needed to get summer jobs, so after a fruitless search they settle on working at Louis’ family’s country club. Liam is a lifeguard while Zayn somehow get stuck with kitchen duty alongside Cher (and Niall who was actually supposed to be working in childcare but spent most of his time picking around people’s plates before they were taken out to the public) and Zayn really hates moving during the school year.

But he supposes this move wasn’t _completely_ terrible.


End file.
